I'm trying to move over to Armour....hopefully completely.....most advice when starting NDT is to up doses about fort nightly ...or is it 2-3 weeks.......but does the same apply if you are still on Levothyroxine ?

I am now down to 25 Levothyroxine....originally being on between 75 and 100 ...

And am on one grain Armour.

My doctor told me to stay on this for three to four weeks...and I think he expects me to eventually be on Armour only.

3 Replies

Jollypolly, advice on STTM is to increase NDT in half grain increments every 2 weeks until symptoms resolve and to hold at 3 grains for 4-6 weeks and have a blood test before increasing further. I feel 3 grains may be excessive and testing at 2 grains may be more appropriate. While increasing dose this way may be fine for people self medicating, your GP is likely to increase dose more conservatively.

1 grain Armour and 25mcg Levothyroxine is equivalent to the 100mcg Levothyroxine you were previously taking.

If your body has been used to T4 for quite a while, Armour is only adding 9 mcgs. of T3 with each grain. I don't think your body will be shocked by this amount. At one grain you are equal to your levo dose without the additional levo. I would drop that and see how you do on one grain of Armour. Now the levo will take about two weeks as it metabolizes out of the bloodstream so you will have to decide THEN whether you want to increase Armour or not. You may prefer to stay at one grain if you only needed 75 mcgs of levo.

It is wise to take the first few weeks slowly to get your body used to the T3. I found I was feeling like more after 10 days so tried increasing by only a quarter for a few days then by another to bring me up to the recommended half. When I was up to 2grains I started feeling unwell and my first though was I'd increased to quickly but then it became apparent I had a UTI and testing showed it to be a bad one. First set of antibiotics I was allergic to and I was in a lot of pain. Felt really rough and mindful that the last UTI lasted 3 months and aware that I was taking a NDT with a lot of fillers I prioritised and went back onto Levo for a few days and concentrated on getting rid of the infection. I was worried that the fillers could be contributing to my feeling of unrest. It cleared up well and hind sight says I panicked but I felt I had to do that at the time. So after a week of Levo back on NDT but felt able to increase sooner as my body now more at ease with the T3. Be cautious and be guided by your body. My temperature is now more normal and things going well even though not optimal yet but I realise the fine tuning may well take time.